This Study Was Examined Way Back Since The Mid-1800S. Many

Statistics state that mental illness is estimated to be higher in blacks than in whites. One of the contributing factors to why blacks aren’t being cared for when they have a mental illness is because of the stigma that mental illness doesn’t exist within the community. According to Plowden (2006), “ African American men often differ in their presentation of depression and are often misdiagnosed. African American men are at greater risk for depression, but they are less likely to participate in mental health care.” This is due to the

Health care for mental illness is an issue in the African American community for Men, Women and Adolescents due to the underserving and lack of mental healthcare providers, the cultural stigma of having mental illness and

Historically, Black Americans have been reluctant to pursue mental health treatment. Bean (2007) details how cultural tensions, Black religiosity, gender role dynamics, and African American history with mental health has lead to current negative perceptions of counseling and psychological services in African American communities. Bean (2007) conducted this study by sampling 194 African American students of Tennessee State University and an additional 94 Black residents of a neighboring community of Nashville, TN. The author’s participants completed tests measuring Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI), Religious Orientation Scale (ROS), Gender Role Conflict Scale (GCRS) and Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPH). Ultimately, gender roles did significantly correlate to informing

The study’s findings will contribute to the body of knowledge of clinical social work. Increased research evidence would lead mental health practitioners to assess the problems and treatment needs of African American couples. Furthermore, practitioners could possibly advocate for appropriate interventions and policies to improve services to this identified population.

Other negative factors regarding African-American schizophrenics include low quality insurance, poverty, negative encounters from professionals in the past. In order to decrease the symptoms of schizophrenia in African-Americans, clinicians can promote wellness, such as exercising, practicing healthy dietary behaviors and improving medication adherence to improve health outcomes. Other than mental illnesses, African-Americans are at risk of having other physical diseases such high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases than Caucasians. African-Americans may believe the causes of schizophrenia may result from negative life events, stress, genetics, medical issues, anxiety, chemical imbalance, and environmental factors.

When experiencing a mental illness, African Americans face obstacles “related to understanding the problem or situation and limitation in awareness of possible solutions, strategies remedies and resources” (Hines-Martin, Malone, Kim, & Brown-Piper, 2003). In a study by Hines-Martin (2003), participants verbalized that they did not think they were “crazy” and therefore did not need mental health services. In this instance participants showed a lack of knowledge about what mental health illness looks like. They identified mental illness as dichotomous states (Hines-Martin et al., 2003). A study by Mental Health America found similar results. In this study, a majority of African Americans surveyed believed that depression was a “health problem” and in some cases “normal” (MHA, 2012). Talking about mental illness is taboo for African Americans, and as a result they possess little knowledge about specific mental health problems or available treatments (Alvidrez et al., 2008). For African Americans, stigma serves as an impediment to problem recognition. Because they have a misconstrued idea of what mental illness is, they are less likely to contemplate that they have such problems. Alvidrez (2008) found that stigma prevented 65% of their survey respondents from contemplating that they had such problems. Because many African Americans are uninformed about what mental illness is and how it

Article Review 2 results stated that overall every day discrimination showed higher odds of any psychiatric disorder, anxiety, mood and more lifetime DSM- IV disorders. Furthermore it tends to agree with Article review one, in that, depression is a major factor for the older African American.

Black mental health differs from White mental health. White people manage mental illness completely different than African Americans. For instance, the 2010 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report states that White people seek and receive treatment or therapy for mental health issues at twice the rate as African Americans.

David R. Williams and Ruth Williams Morris write in “Racism and Mental Health: The African American Experience” that negative attitudes of white Americans resulting in the formation of racist policies contribute to mental health problems for African Americans, as they attempt to cope. Mental health issues, Williams and William Morris continues, can be a consequence of living within a lower income bracket with decreasing prospects for future improvement, an inability to attain needed “resources” e.g. the choice between prescription medications and food, or finally, internalizing the damaging opinions.

In the Black Community, various health and social problems are ignored by its members. These include, but are not limited to, mental illness, crime rates amongst blacks, communication amongst family members etc. One of the more prominent of the problems ignored by members of the black community is mental illness. There are numerous reasons as to why it is ignored, although every 1 in 5 African Americans are facing a mental illness. One example that was given in the memoir Buck, was MK Asante’s mother, Amina, and as the journal is read, it is shown to see how mental illness can affect people.

African American communities have proven to be a powerful force when banded together in a common goal to prosper in a world where they have not always been accepted. These communities are characterized as being formidable, inspirational, resilient, independent and made to endure the impossible. However, these same communities have experienced extreme difficulties, challenges and hardships, including the critical yet silent battle with mental health. Culturally, African American families tend to underestimate mental illnesses instead of consulting professional services. Socially, there is a score of stigmas and negative attitudes towards mental illnesses amongst the Black community. Economically, the African American communities that are

With the way most African-Americans carry themselves you would not be able to tell which ones have poor mental health; but only a few seek help for their mental health issues. African-Americans poor state of mental health is believed to stem from the 200 years of oppression; from slavery to where we are now, many things were put in place to stop the progression of the African- American people both mind and body. For example the right to vote, stopping it with the literacy tests and the grandfather clause. Throughout the years African-Americans have gained more, influencing them physically and

Anyone can develop a mental illness at any given time in their life. Mental illness does not have a set onset date and time or an expiration date.  African Americans encounter more severe forms of mental illness due to lack of resources and barriers. According to the American Psychiatric Association, mental health disorders are common in the United States. Every year, about 45 million people suffer from at least one diagnosed mental disorder. However, African American adults are 20 percent more likely to experience serious psychological distress than any other ethnicity. Common mental illnesses among African Americans include suicide, especially in Black men, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),

For the expert-consensus diagnoses, clinicians looked at the structured interviews and medical records of the patients. Strakowski determined that there are minimal differences in first-rank symptoms between African-American and Caucasian patients when clinicians are blinded by ethnicity/race. There were 79 patients that met DSM-IV criteria for an affective disorder, 40 identifying themselves as Caucasian or White and 39 identifying themselves as African-American. The expert-consensus diagnoses revealed the presence of first-rank symptoms in 55% of the White patients and 62% of the African-American patients. However, despite these minimal differences, it was found that during the structural interviews, African-American patients were more likely to be diagnosed with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder than their white counterparts (Strakowski et al., 1996). Therefore, the overdiagnosis of schizophrenia cannot be attributed to the presence of these first-rank symptoms.

Depression has affected millions of Americans despite race, ethnic background and culture. It is one of the top reasons for suicide in the U.S. Most often it can be misdiagnosed or not properly treated among African Americans. Consequently, many African Americans will not seek care as; admitting to depression is considered a sign of weakness. The African American population is a diverse group of people who have strong beliefs in family, church and community. Their view of good health is considered a blessing; on the other hand, those who suffer from poor health will often wonder if it’s because of how they lived their lives. In addition the older generation is more spiritually grounded and will feel blessed in spite of poor health. On the other hand, older generations presumed some mental illnesses were often